I'm Dave. In 2002, I got sick. I didn't get better after a couple of weeks so I went to see a doctor, which I almost never do, because I'm a physician, too. When I found out that I had an incurable leukemia, I began recording my thoughts and emotions about the disease, and sending them to my family and friends in a series of messages we called "Dave's Great Adventure." I'm having more therapy so I'm resurrecting my old DGA messages, adding new messages and putting them in blog form this time.

About Me

Thursday, May 2, 2002

Thanks for info; I've actually been spending a fair amount of time looking at the pages, trying to decide among my options.

There seem to be a great deal of things coming up at the same time, and more in development. And, it seems that it makes no real difference in which order you try them.

I think we're going to go the Rituxin/fludarabine/cytoxan route first, as is being done at M. D. Anderson with some apparently great results.The side effects seem to be minimal for most folks. Then, if need be, there are several (actually 40-50) new monoclonal antibodies being developed. Some folks are suggesting the protocol above, with a second round of a different monoclonal antibody to "clean things up." The antisense sounds extremely promising as well. I just read about it last night for the first time. I'm going to look into it a bit more before my next appointment to see what Brian makes of it.

I'm really doing quite well now. If they didn't tell me I was sick I wouldn't know I was. I'm continuing to work a four day week and no nights. I'm actually volunteering for a few weekend days on L&D since I now haven't delivered a baby in a few months. You can't call yourself an obstetrician if you don't "get wet" occasionally, as we say in the business.

Was I correct? Did Jen win the pool? She'll be thrilled! Actually, Dan won the pool...now he knows he has a matching kidney out there!